Leo's POV

I walked into the house quickly locking it behind me shaking in panic still. 

I was hoping to get away with everyone knowing about my face and not everything else but King was pretty observant. I thought I was alone in class. Then when he picked me up after school it was kinda nice of him. It kinda made me nervous all of a sudden. I couldn't look at him the whole time because it just felt oddly nice and comfortable. The pain just melted away in his strong arms. What the hell was wrong with me?

It didn't help that he grabbed the same arm that was all bruised and sore from my dad squeezing and twisting it like he was going to break it. Honestly, I thought he was going to and the look in his eyes made me think it did cross his mind.

I'm glad King saved me from getting hit by that bike but he grabbed right on the bruising. I don't know what came over me as everything that happened yesterday started flashing before my eyes. Suddenly it wasn't King who was standing in front of me anymore, it was my dad. I started to panic, I couldn't breathe for a moment until he let go. It felt like reality rushed in again all at once scaring the hell out of me, making me feel confused. That’s never happened to me before when it came to my dad’s abuse.

I shook the thoughts away as I walked over to the table again and started taking out my homework since I was a day behind from not doing anything yesterday. As I did that my father grabbed my shoulder and turned me around looking into my face. I jumped back quickly, hitting the table, not knowing what he would do but he grabbed under my chin and forced my head up which made me flinch even more because I thought he was going to hit me in the face again. Tears quickly filled my eyes.

"You seriously went to school looking like this?" His grip tightens on my jaw bone. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

I whimpered from the pain and tried my best to answer him. "I-I took care of it. I p- promise," I said in a muffled voice as he squeezed my cheeks together harder. 

"Tsk" he throws my head to the side, letting go as I rub my lower cheeks. "You better have. Stay home tomorrow, I'll pull a double in the morning to make up for the money I lost yesterday," he stepped back and picked up his work bag. His mood quickly switched to calm like he wasn't just about to break my lower jaw a moment ago. "I just changed her bedding. Keep an eye on her fever, that cough is back again. Let her rest as much as you can and if her fever spikes, the doctor gave us some more medicine. It's the one in the red glass bottle next to the bed. Give her 10ml straight into her IV. Understand all that son?"

He stopped before he opened the door and turned to face me again as I flinched up straight. "Y- yes dad. 10ml in the red glass bottle next to her bed if the fever spikes. Feed her at 6 and pain medications at 7." I ran down the rest of her schedule to him because I knew he would tell me if I didn't. 

"That's right. I'll call at 9 to check-in." With that, he walked out the door and I was left alone downstairs.

Walking back into the kitchen I stopped in front of the table and looked down at my books. Suddenly a flash of anger took over as I threw them all off the table onto the ground. Hot tears ran down my face as I stood there breathing heavily for a moment before I fully broke down.

After my moment alone, I dried my tears and picked up my books carefully. I washed my face and then headed up the stairs to my mom's bedroom. 

She was lying in her bed with her eyes closed. Her golden yellow hair, the same color as mine, was brushed nicely to the side as she wore a white nightgown. She was really beautiful and everyone reminded me about it too. Even in this bed, I thought she was the most beautiful thing my eyes laid on. I love her so much.

She had a tube running under her nose to help her breathe and a few more tubes underneath the blankets for food and using the bathroom since she can't leave the bed anymore. I hated seeing her like this. I could see she was getting paler and thinner by the day. She also can't talk as much because she lost her breath fast and it made her tired.

As I closed the door and walked over to the chair next to her bed I saw a weak smile start to play on her lips before she even opened her eyes. "My golden loin," she whispered. She's called me that for as long as I could remember.

"Father said your cough came back and you have a fever again too," I told her as I set my books on the floor next to the old small chair and sit down.

"Old man," She smiles again and starts to giggle but a cough stops her, and I waited for her to finish. "Ratted me out," she inhaled deeply. "Again."

"Yup. So I'm not supposed to talk to you so you can get some rest. I have to do some homework. Is the news okay?"

She nodded once and turned her head to the TV. She doesn't watch TV but she listened with her eyes closed until she fell asleep.

"Okay. After I'm done I will read to you."

"Sounds good... my golden... loin," was all she said before I started on my mountain of homework and got a head start on tomorrow's lesson since I wouldn't be there.

It was our nightly routine. Homework, reading, and then I end up passing out in her room on the small uncomfortable chair or with my head on her bed with a book still open.

I had my own bed in my room downstairs of course but I ended up sleeping with her most nights unless my dad was home. I just don't like leaving her alone up there.

One thing me and her had in common was our love for books. Before she got sick we used to make trips up to the library once a week and got as many books as they would let us take home and read together.

We would also walk all over the large city next to our town together too. She showed me all the buildings and we would walk in the park behind the house and eat lunch on Wolf's Bridge which was in the middle of the park just watching the Koi fish swim underneath us. It was beautiful. I missed those days and to be honest it wasn’t the same standing on that bridge without her by my side so I stopped going there.

She would always stop and help people around our little town with a big bright smile on her face. I always tried to smile like her because I saw the way her smile would change everyone's mood around her and they just couldn't help but smile back at it. It's not as big and bright as it used to be now but seeing her try always warmed my heart just the same.

That's why no matter what I've been through in my life or how much pain I was in I always smiled around others to make them smile and cheer them up on a bad day.

—---

I ended up staying home for the rest of the week to help around the house and help with my mother while my dad worked and rested a little more. Also letting my bruising heal up more which was thankfully healing fast but I didn’t need others to see the bruising on my ribs and stomach when we were changing into our gym clothes in the locker room either.